Joseph to the southeastern Indian city of Vijayawada in the state of Andhra Pradesh. • “We’d stay for a month,” she recalled. “We had a dance teacher come every day. And I remember there were days I’d say, ‘No, I don’t want to dance today.’ ”

Now, two months into her reign as Miss America, the first Indian-American to win the title wishes she could showcase more often the Bollywood routine that dazzled the Miss America judges and audience.

Indian dance — from its classic form to crowd-pleasing Bollywood — is part and parcel of who she is, said Davuluri, who performed an Indian routine the first time she competed in the Miss America pageant organization, winning 2006 Michigan Outstanding Teen, and later first runner-up at the national contest.

Davuluri’s family moved to St. Joseph when Nina was 10. She attended Michigan State University for a year before enrolling at the University of Michigan, from which she graduated in 2011.

Her family relocated to the Syracuse, N.Y., area in 2007.

“She’s just a phenomenal young lady — brilliant, well-versed,” said Shelley Taylor, executive director of the Miss Michigan program. “And with her personal platform of cultural diversity, I think she’ll really make a mark for herself, her country and the program.

“She won as Miss New York, but she’ll always be part of Michigan.”

Introducing Indian dance to the talent competition of a Miss America pageant was only one of the reasons Davuluri stands out as the newest titleholder. Her crown win was initially tarred by a racist backlash, via social media, that focused on her complexion and ethnicity.

Some tweeters called into question her authenticity as an American or made other racist remarks. In response, she launched a Twitter campaign to post observations on diversity with the hashtag #circles

ofunity.

“For every negative feed, tweet or post, I received thousands of encouragement not just from Americans but from around the world,” Davuluri said during a recent phone interview from New York.

The pageant queen met President Barack Obama on Oct. 16 at the White House; he congratulated her on making history.

“I’ve just had various people — from young kids to adults — tell me how proud they are of how I handled the situation, that I’ve overcome it and been an inspiration to them and their children,” said Davuluri, 24.

She has been deluged with congratulations from the Indian community. She recently attended a gala for American-based southeast Asian journalists, and the pageant organization has received requests for her to travel to India and to address Indian-American associations.

“They obviously feel that I’m part of them,” said Davuluri, whose grandmother watched the pageant from India via an Internet connection. “I’m a product of them, and it’s wonderful to see how genuinely happy they are for me.”

She was born in Syracuse, and lived in Oklahoma before moving at age 10 to Michigan, where her father, Chaudhury Davuluri, worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist.

Although she learned Indian dancing in her parents’ homeland, she took up ballet, tap and jazz in Michigan. At St. Joseph High School, she was a marching-band clarinetist, cheerleader, varsity tennis player and Science Olympiad team member.

“We remember her as being a really nice young lady and one of those model students,” said principal Jeff Runser. “She was very happy. She took good classes — solid student.”

Davuluri said her school writing often centered on stereotypes and misconceptions “that I’ve experienced my whole life.”

People, she said, “asked if I was going to have an arranged marriage and if I worshipped cows,” she said. “The remarks weren’t meant to be malicious, but simply from ignorance.”

Such experiences influenced her pageant platform: “Diversity Through Cultural Sensitivity.” And it influenced the Miss America interview question she answered onstage, about Julie Chen, the Chinese-American host of television’s The Talk, who underwent plastic surgery to widen her eyes.

“I don’t agree with plastic surgery,” said Davuluri, adding that “I’ve always viewed Miss America as the girl next door, and the girl next door is evolving as diversity in America evolves.”< /p>